Photos show Beijing’s militarisation of South China Sea in new detail

Beijing has been accused of building “island fortresses” in the South China Sea after a newspaper in the Philippines obtained aerial photographs offering what experts called the most detailed glimpse yet of China’s militarisation of the waterway.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer said the surveillance photographs – passed to its reporters by an unnamed source – were mostly taken between June and December last year and showed Chinese construction activities across the disputed Spratly archipelago between the Philippines and Vietnam.

EXCLUSIVE: New photos show China is nearly done with its militarization of South China Sea https://t.co/dJEz9L9To1. This is the most complete, detailed batch of aerial pics available of China’s SCS military outposts.

Control of the South China Sea is one of the most contentious and explosive diplomatic issues in East Asia. For centuries, various regional powers have laid claim to the sea, which is rich in fisheries and serves as a shipping lane for more than half of the world’s oil tanker traffic.